Research Areas

Reproductive Health Justice

In the PROGRESS lab, we investigate a wide array of topics within health/social psychology. These topics include infertility, pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and pregnancy stigma. Dr. Kristina Hood's research focuses on examining the challenges and opportunities that influence the stress and stigma associated with Black birthing people who are involuntarily childless reproductive journeys and capture their experiences with navigating medical and social support using survey and photovoice methodology.

Stigma, Bias, and Prejudice

Another area PROGRESS Lab seeks to examine is prejudice and social biases. Our work attempts to understand the underlying mechanisms of social biases, such as gender inequity, racism, and heterosexism, and their effects on decision-making processes and lived experiences of majority and minority groups. This work is rooted in intersectionality, equity and social justice.

Health Engagement and Utilization

PROGRESS lab also analyzes how systemic barriers, such as health care system distrust, usual source of care, and insurance access, affects preventive service utilization and engagement within the healthcare system. We specifically investigate this work in Black emerging adults, a demographic that is highly susceptible to preventable morbidity and mortality issues as well as numerous challenges to accessing services including inadequate providers to serves emerging adults, insurance access, discontinuities in care, and a lack of preventive service guidelines. This work hopes to learn what dissemination techniques could be used to target Black emerging adults specifically to engage more in the health care system. Furthermore, it hopes to examine how school based health centers or other forms of integrated health services benefit this population more to alleviate health disparities.  

Sexual Consent and Sexual Violence Prevention

We are interested in dispelling myths or cultural norms that result in instances of sexual violence. We are interested in related topics such as: rape myths, secondary vicitmization, sex trafficking, and intersecting identity biases that are used to deny individuals of their sexual autonomy.

Health-Related Institutional Betrayal

We are interested in how healthcare systems and policies fail to support and protect women, particularly those with chronic health conditions. Our research explores experiences of medical gaslighting, health-related institutional betrayal, and impacts of policy on women's health outcomes and engagement with healthcare, across healthcare broadly, with particular interest in reproductive and sexual healthcare settings and experiences. We are also interested in the ways social norms, structural inequities, and institutional practices shape women’s trust in, interactions with, and navigation of healthcare systems and providers.